The invention relates to an electrical connector, and more particularly, to an electrical connector having contacts lightly held within sleeves formed in an insulator and rigidly mounted by press fitting the contacts into receiving apertures formed in a substrate.
Certain prior art connectors have been assembled by very tightly press fitting or molding a contact into a receiving block of insulative material which forms a structural member to support the contacts and hold them rigidly within the insulative body. The prior art connector, having contacts rigidly fixed within the insulator, may then be mounted by bolting the insulator to a pair of spaced parallel rails, or by dropping the contact tails into holes in a mounting substrate and soldering them. Problems arise in substrate mounted connectors of this type in that since the insulator forms a structural member which supports the contacts, the insulator cannot be removed after the connector is mounted to the substrate. Further, it is virtually impossible to remove individual ones of the contacts from within the insulator and/or the mounting substrate in the event one of the contacts is damaged.
The prior art techniques for assembly of these connectors are also relatively slow because of the large forces required to tightly press fit, and thereby rigidly mount, each individual contact into its receiving sleeve within the insulator. The improved connector and method of the present invention overcome certain of these disadvantages by providing for simultaneous insertion of rows of contacts held together on strips into receiving sleeves which hold them lightly in position within the insulator. Simultaneous contact insertion greatly speeds the connector assembly process and the light insulator/contact holding force enables insertion of the contacts into the insulator by hand eliminating the need for mechanical pressing apparatus. In addition, the fact that the contacts are only lightly held within the insulator sleeves provides the further advantage of repairability by permitting ready removal and replacement of individual contacts from within the insulator.